Continuing on from Chapter 1 let's begin with a brief recap of this extremely rare vehicle.
The only surviving vehicle was recovered from the Pilica River in Poland. It is believed that only a handfull of these were ever manufactured, making it very rare indeed! This variant of the Sd.Kfz 8 was all but forgotten until it was recovered and then restored to operational condition. Having a full lightly armoured hull around the chassis and drive train, it is believed that this was a lost prototype of an armoured artillery tractor.
These are the only period images to be currently found online. The first image appears to show pneumatic tyred front wheels and a four door rear panel.
Both the lower front panels shape and design and the large upper panel overhang are very different on this example compared to what is offered in the Trumpeter kit.
Two door rear panel on this vehicle.
It appears Trumpeter have engineered their kit based on the restored vehicle and as there are so few period images to gain reference from, I built it 99% out of the box. The only aftermarket I could find back in 2012 was a set of solid tyred wheels that the surviving vehicle was fitted with and a drivers compartment bulkead in resin, both made by MR Modellbau: Front wheels. Driver compartment I purchased a set of the wheels but I am still undecided whether to utilise them.
Since then PanzerArt also offer the solid tyred type wheels.PanzerArt RE35-695 Sd.Kfz 8 Solid rubber wheels
I rarely see this kit built so I figured it would be nice to see this over the finish line even with the work completed so long ago. Although it has travelled halfway across our fair isles due to moving home in the preceding years, thanks to it being packed in a plastic type storage box, it has thankfully remained fully intact.
I’m pretty sure it’s not the norm to return to projects abandoned so long for obvious reasons but to get an idea if she was presentable enough to continue in its present form, in 2024 I snapped some pics to get a closer look. Confident that previous work could be improved on with very little work I started jotting down ideas on how to add my current creativity. I’ve decided on a late war factory hard edged camo scheme similar to those seen on Hetzers and late war Sd.Kfz 251's. I’m in the process of accumulating vehicle drawings and images to get an idea of how to accomplish this without using masks.
Day trippin!
To get the ball rolling I first needed to figure out how best to continue where I left off. The paint job to the chassis, running gear and tracks looked acceptable and only require a few tweaks but I feel the interior might need some additional work to match its upcoming exterior paint job. Matching the paint tone shouldnt be too diffucult made all the more simpler by the fact no exterior body panels have yet received any paint.
Track wheels close up.
Modelling subjects at such a glacial pace has necessitated the adoption of a method to make restarting projects up again as painless as possible. That has meant storing them safely and securely, retaining any yet to be fixed loose items and highlighting the instruction sheet with parts already fitted. This makes long overdue reboots a pleasurably smooth process so I am confident I can quicky assemble the remaining parts and crack on with the paint job. As this project has remained unfinished for too long already Ive put a time limit of the end of April to see it completed. Lets see how I get on😄
Rescue and renovation
The only remaining example yet found was rescued from the Pilica river in Poland. The renovated vehicle was named "Lufcik". The vehicle serial number is reported to be Fgst.Nr.441280, a version of DB10 made in 1943 by Daimler Benz.. This rare exhibit is in the collection of the museum in Tomaszów Mazowiecki (Poland).
Online sources state that the vehicle has the serial number Fgst.Nr.441280 and is a DB10 version built in 1943 by Daimler-Benz.
Restoration begins
Swaping out the original solid tyred wheels for pneumatic ones
One final decision to make is whether to portray it as a restored vehicle with pneumatic front wheeled tyres or as a 1945 final months of the war vehicle with its unusual solid front tyres.
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